


Safe

by smallpoem



Series: Confident [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Comfort, Coming Out, M/M, Pining, Podfic Welcome, Queer Themes, just soft boys being close and having feelings, taeyong confides in ten about his sexuality and ten has a revelation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27092173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallpoem/pseuds/smallpoem
Summary: “If there’s ever anything on your mind… know that I’m here for you, okay?” Ten gently squeezes Taeyong’s knee. “You’re safe here, hyung.”
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten
Series: Confident [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1943320
Comments: 8
Kudos: 101





	Safe

They’re on standby at a music video set, waiting for their turns to film individual shots. Taeyong is sitting on the floor between some unused lighting equipment, watching Ten dance and goof around to the music droning on in the background. Ten spins and strikes a pose, fixing Taeyong with his gaze.  
"Hyung, look at me! Aren't I handsome?"  
Taeyong grins and concedes, "Very handsome." Ten looks incredibly pleased.  
"I know.” He spreads his arms and twirls in a whimsical circle, eyes closed, lips smiling. _Unfairly handsome._ “I make all the boys swoon."  
It takes Taeyong a moment, and he almost swallows the words back down, but then he does ask, “How do you do that?”  
Ten stops and cocks his head. “What do you mean?”  
“How are you so confident?”  
Ten shrugs. “Because I know I’m great. And I stopped caring what other people think a long time ago.”  
Taeyong nods, bites his tongue, clenches and unclenches his fists. Pushes on. “I mean like… with liking men.”  
“Oh.” With that, Ten’s whole demeanor changes. His eyes soften and the smile he gives Taeyong is gentle and almost a little sad. He steps over to where Taeyong is sitting and gracefully sinks down to talk to him.  
“Well, I grew up in an accepting environment. I was never made to feel like being into men was a bad thing. At least not by the people who mattered.”  
Taeyong nods slowly. He’s caught in a limbo between wanting to watch Ten while he listens and feeling too shy to look him in the eye. So he keeps glancing up, catching Ten’s gaze and then quickly looking away with burning cheeks. There’s no way Ten doesn’t notice, but he keeps talking.  
“Of course it’s still hard sometimes. Some people are assholes, or at the very least stuck up and misguided, and they get into your head. But I’ve always had people who love me for who I am, and I had other queer people to look up to. That stuff is important. Love, support and knowing you’re not alone make a huge difference.”  
Taeyong is staring at his hands in his lap now, fingers restlessly kneading together and pulling apart. There’s heat burning in his throat and behind his eyes. Ten’s hand is blurry when it comes into view, resting on his knee to try and comfort him. Taeyong rapidly blinks the tears away, swallows against the lump in his throat and nods to signal that he’s still listening.  
“If there’s ever anything on your mind… know that I’m here for you, okay?” Ten gently squeezes Taeyong’s knee. “You’re safe here, hyung.”  
Taeyong fights the new wave of tears threatening to overwhelm him and forces himself to look up. Ten’s eyes are infinitely gentle. He’s like an anchor, grounding him, and Taeyong knows every word he said is true. He’s safe here. But that doesn’t mean he is ready. He holds Ten’s gaze and manages a smile.  
“Thank you.”  
Ten smiles back brightly, radiant, and his eyes regain some of their usual sharpness. He jumps up to his feet and pulls Taeyong along by his hands. Taeyong follows him, flustered until Ten lets go of his hands and starts dancing circles around him, poking him in the side, in the shoulder, in the cheek to try and get him to join. It makes Taeyong laugh, and something heavy slips off his shoulders. He feels lighter now, like it’s easier to breathe, like he can stand up taller than before. He joins Ten in a silly dance battle until it’s his turn to film.

“I’m gay.”  
They’re shoulder to shoulder, leaning against a wall in a dressing room, waiting to get their makeup done for a live performance. It’s not like he was planning to say it now, but here it is, out there. Finally. Ten doesn’t seem surprised.  
“Hey, me too,” he says, as if Taeyong doesn’t already know that. It makes him laugh. Ten makes everything easy, even this.  
With a deep breath he admits, “I haven’t told anyone else.” It’s just one sentence, but it’s packed with a lot more. _This is scary. This is a lot. But I trust you._ He feels Ten nod beside him.  
“Well, thank you for telling me.”  
Taeyong can hear the soft smile in Ten’s voice. He’s smiling, too.  
“Thank you for listening.”  
Ten bumps their shoulders together and they wait in comfortable silence.

It shouldn’t make a difference, but it does.  
Even though it didn’t come as a shock - Ten had his suspicions for a while, it was only a matter of time until Taeyong confirmed them - and technically, nothing has changed. But somehow it’s as if there was a switch in Ten’s brain, where he could flip it to pretend that his feelings aren’t real because Taeyong is unattainable, and that switch is gone now.  
Now every smile, every blush, every slightest touch holds a sliver of possibility that Ten’s stupid heart latches onto, no matter how hard he tries to keep it at bay.  
Taeyong makes it impossible not to fall in love with him.  
He slowly grows more carefree, more sure of himself, and he always comes to find Ten. He confides in him. Laughs at his jokes. Blushes at his compliments without looking away. He’s beautiful, and Ten is a lovesick fool. Because even when fear rears its head in his ribcage and reminds him that he shouldn’t, he shouldn’t, he just can’t help himself.

“You’re so pretty when you smile.”  
The words are out there before he has a chance to think about them. Now all he can do is act nonchalant and pretend he isn’t mentally slapping himself.  
The pretty smile on Taeyong’s face is joined by a pretty blush, visible even as he ducks his head with a bashful laugh that pulls at Ten’s heart. And then he looks back up, right into Ten’s eyes, and responds.  
“You’re one to talk.”  
Right. Because he does that now. Every now and then, Taeyong uses his newfound confidence to flirt back, and it always leaves Ten reeling.  
He laughs to cover up the sound of his pounding heart, and he has to avert his eyes in case looking at Taeyong any longer might break him. _He wants this._ He wants so badly for Taeyong to want him back. It’s just that Taeyong is doing all of this for the first time, it’s new and exciting and Ten is the only one who knows, so of course Taeyong tries it out on him. Even if there is genuine attraction there, it’s not going to last, it’s not going to turn into what Ten longs for it to be. He can’t let himself hope.  
Taeyong reaches out to brush a strand of hair out of Ten’s face, and Ten’s heart does what it wants anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Part 3 is coming! idk when but hopefully soon!  
> Thank you for reading ♥


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